Happiness Island, as seen towards the south.
Happiness Island is an island in the water surrounding Liberty City, officially part of the borough of Algonquin, and is the city's southernmost point. It is based on the real-life Liberty Island, complete with its own version of the Statue of Liberty, called the Statue of Happiness. Niko will kill either Dimitri Rascalov or Jimmy Pegorino on Happiness Island, depending on the ending the player chooses.
Unlike the real-life Liberty Island, Happiness Island has only a light police presence; if the player gains a wanted level, no reinforcements will arrive (apart from Police Mavericks and Annihilators), as the island is isolated from the mainland, and Predator patrol-boats cannot dock to transport foot police.) The island is large enough for the player to escape from a two (in some cases three) Wanted Level search radius on foot if they stay out of sight of police, which is useful for players hunting the six pigeons on the island, though there are several officers at the dock at throughout the island with M4 Carbine rifles/9mm's. In TBoGT, there will also be 2 cops near the entrance to the "building" under the Statue of Happiness.
There are forklifts on the south-eastern side of the island; a Faggio and a randomly-spawned vehicle can be found to the south.
Happiness Island is a great location for Team Deathmatch, as one can trap the enemy team on either of the 2 piers. This can easily result in 100-kill games in an Assault Rifles-only match. Trapped opponents may escape using the boats at the piers, however.
Trivia
- Entering one of the four doors on the top floor (which cannot be accesed by stairs), the player can view a rather strange easter egg. If you climb up the ladder, you can view a beating heart. Called 'The Heart Of Liberty City'. The player cannot destroy this. The only way to access this is by jumping out of a helicopter onto the top platform or if you get drunk in TBoGT you may end up by the heart wearing a parachute.
- There are six pigeons located on the Statue of Happiness. If you shoot the Heart of Liberty City, all six pigeons will die at once.
- Strangely, if the player zooms in with his Sniper Rifle, the face on the top of the statue resembles US Senator Hilary Clinton. This may be a revenge act by Rockstar, after Hilary Clinton criticized Rockstar as being too "Violent".
- The "Happiness is...land" sweater is obtained on Happiness Island.
- Unlike the real-life Statue of Liberty, the Statue of Happiness faces north, towards the West River, meanwhile the real-life statue faces south towards the Atlantic.
- In Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars there are no vehicles on Happiness Island, and no normal way to take them across. However, there are two bugs the player can exploit to spawn them. Firstly, if the player hails a taxi, sets a GPS waypoint for the dealer Osama and skips the journey, the Cabbie will sometimes respawn upon the island. Starting a taxi mission on the island results in fares appearing on the island. You can only fail the mission. Alternatively, if the player obtains a two star wanted level upon the island, a Police Patrol may spawn on the island chasing the player. This does not work in GTA IV or its DLCs.
- Strangely, a Uranus may spawn on the island.
- In GTA IV if the player sets a way point on Happiness Island and hails a cab for a ride if they select skip then they will appear on the island.
- If the player sets a waypoint for Happiness Island in a car, the in-car GPS will continuously say "Calculating Route" until the player sets the waypoint off.
- This is the only place to get a pick up shirt.The shirt is blue saying "happiness is land".
Template:Algonquin neighborhoods